Tagged with: Springwatch

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Some of you may have noticed that this year, Chris Packham was dropping Manic Street Preacher song titles into Springwatch. Here's a fun little video montage from News online.
In previous years, Chris has used Cure and Smiths songs, so at least he has some taste! ;)
Gull

Mike Bailey, Senior Reserve Manager, Dyfi - Countryside Council for Wales has just been in touch to tell us about a recent visit from Chris Packham and the Springwatch team who filmed wild orchids there on Tuesday.
Chris Packham visited Ynyslas dunes with a BBC Springwatch camera crew yesterday to film some of site's renowned orchid populations.
Chris Packham by Juliet Reagan.
On a beautiful sunny morning Juliet Reagan, a local orchid enthusiast and myself we were able to lead Chris to the perfect spot to see and film some of the amazing variety of orchids at Ynyslas.
Chris Packham and crew filming. Image by Juliet Reagan.
This included a scarce deep red subspecies of Early Marsh orchid, large purple spikes of Southern Marsh orchid and the aptly named' Leopard spot' variety of the Southern Marsh.
We were also able to find a couple of the more elusive Bee orchid, a real floral gem that had the TV presenter waxing lyrical.
Chris Packham and orchids. Image by Juliet Reagan.
Mike Bailey said: It was great to see the programme giving the local flora some attention and Chris Packham's knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject was very impressive".
Thanks for the update Mike and nice to see some of the old crew I worked with for a few weeks back in 2009, still going strong! :)
Gull

I'm out walking again for Weatherman Walking currently so just wanted to remind everyone that Springwatch starts on Bank Holiday Monday at 8pm on BBC One.
I've added a few key species that I've heard from the team will be featured this year so have a look if you have time.
The fantastic 700 hectare Ynys-Hir nature reserve is set in a stunning location at the top of the Dyfi Estuary, flanked by the Cambrian Mountains.
The reserve is a true wildlife haven, offering a huge variety of different habitats for us to explore - Welsh oak woodland, wet grassland and salt marsh, reed beds, heathland, rivers and ponds.
From the wet meadows to the mountain tops, the reserve is absolutely bursting with wildlife. As well as managing all these habitats for a diversity of wildlife, the RSPB actively works to conserve a number of priority species, including breeding lapwings, redshanks, reed buntings, skylarks, curlews, Greenland white-fronted and barnacle geese, brown hares and otters.
For the first time, Springwatch are planning to broadcast live pictures from a heronry of nesting grey herons and little egrets.
In the woods, they're hoping to feature some of our most spectacular returning migrants, like redstarts and pied flycatchers, alongside resident song thrushes and blackbirds as well as some Springwatch firsts, like wood warblers, nuthatches and maybe even elusive bullfinches.
They will also be looking out for greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers, birds of prey like ospreys, hen harriers, merlins and goshawks and of course red kites - so they have cameras on them too.
The team also be staking out the rivers, waterfalls and freshwater ponds in and around Ynys-hir, hoping to follow dippers, kingfishers, sedge, reed and grasshopper warblers and the occasional bearded tit.
The bankside cameras will be poised and ready for river inhabitants like otters and grebes. But it's not just birds and mammals that the camera teams will be tracking down - Ynys Hir is home to 19 species of dragonfly, 26 species of butterflies and over 400 species of moths as well as reptiles like grass snakes.
Whatever happens, Chris, Kate and Martin will be keeping an eye on daily developments and bringing you all the day's news over the three week event.
For week two, wildlife expert Iolo Willams will be live from Skomer Island off the western tip of Pembrokeshire - home to thousands of sea birds, the Skomer vole - found no where else on Earth, one of Britain's most spectacular floral displays and rich marine life.
Designated as one of only three of Britain's marine nature reserves, it is unique, truly stunning, and beautifully magical.
Springwatch camera teams have been on the island since early April as the first puffins, razorbills and guillemots arrived back from their long winter at sea so expect some great footage.
Iolo will also go under the waves to reveal the rare sea fans, corals and inquisitive grey seals in Skomer's underwater world, as well as the sand eels that feed and power much of the breeding action back on shore.
The team will attempt to film the Skomer vole, find out why bluebells flourish on an island with no woods, calculate how many sand eels puffins can gobble down in a season and discover what manx shearwaters get up to at night!

After three years at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve in Norfolk, Springwatch is moving its base and coming to Wales. The team will be based at the fascinating RSPB Ynys-hir nature reserve, set in a stunning location at the top of the Dyfi Estuary with the Cambrian Mountains as a backdrop.
This year the team are hoping to film herons nesting as well as little egrets which visit the reserve in large numbers. Other birds on the list include great and lesser spotted woodpeckers, birds of prey like hen harriers, ospreys, goshawks and red kites.
There will also be otters, dragonflies, butterflies, reptiles and a variety of habitats to look at, ranging from marshland to classic Welsh oak woodlands and streams.
There's a new couch on order and an old barn is being transformed into the new TV studio. The crew have been busy laying over 40 miles of fibre optic cables, ready to capture all the action on more than 50 mini cameras.
This shed will be magically transformed into the new Springwatch studio!
Keep an eye out on Skomer Island for Wales' very own Iolo Williams who will be based on the island for a week and sending back regular reports. Puffin season is well under way so we should see some nice shots of these colourful auks.
Keep a eye out for the Skomer vole and short eared owls too and I wouldn't be too surprised if Iolo donned his wetsuit and explored some of the marine reserve too. You can get a taster of what is down there in our Skomer marine nature reserve gallery.
Springwatch starts on Bank Holiday Monday, 30 May at 8pm on BBC Two.
Springwatch blog

Native wildflower meadows in the UK have seen a
dramatic decline, leading to a loss in habitats for a wealth of insects,
flora and small mammals.
Springwatch presenter Chris Packham
talks about their importance to our countryside and the role they play
as a food source for many pollin...

BBC Cymru Wales is set to inspire new wildlife heroes to do something for nature this summer in a Springwatch season of events and programmes. The season kicks off with three Springwatch specials on 17, 19 and 20 May. The main Springwatch series then runs from Monday, 31 May - 17 June on BBC Tw...

This summer, the BBC joins forces with the National Trust for a national campaign, launching on Monday 17 May to investigate the plight of honeybees in Britain. The Bee Part Of It campaign is supported by BBC Local, Springwatch and wildlife presenter Kate Humble, who now manages her own bee hives at home. Bees are the world's most important pollinating insects and honey bees are worth around £200 million a year to British agriculture. Their dramatic decline in numbers recently has become a cause of global concern. Bees, along with other pollinators like butterflies, moths, beetles, and hoverflies are crucial to the entire ecosystem. Albert Einstein is alleged to have once said that, without bees, humanity would die out in four years - now there's a scary thought! Perhaps Hollywood should stop making movies about apocalyptic global warming scenarios and focus on the extinction of bees instead? As Iolo Williams recently mentioned - the biggest threat to our planet is mankind and it is us who will ultimately suffer. Nature will resume, long after we're all gone... As part of the build up to this campaign I've been asking you to send in your best bee photos. Here's a gallery of some of the best ones so far. All native bees have been in decline for some time and a combination of factors are believed to be responsible: habitat loss, pesticides, and disease are key. A bee by Steve Tynant: Recent poor summers have also caused enormous damage to honey bees: a third of all colonies were lost in 2008. Matthew Oates, the National Trust's Chief Conservation Advisor, says: "Bee consciousness is vital and we can all help; we can do simple things like planting bee friendly plants and flowers to encourage bees into our gardens. We want more people to understand the crucial role that bees play in our food chain." The main focus of this campaign is the honey bee, and as part of this project, Radio Wales has adopted two new hives on National Trust property.The first will be at Dinefwr in West Wales. The second hive location has yet to be confirmed. Each hive comes with a bee keeper who'll look after the hive for the summer and hopefully deliver up to fifty jars of honey at the end of the season. I've already bought a new toaster! ;) We'll monitor the hives progress for the duration, and you'll be able to follow the story locally on the Jamie
& Louise show as well as on the BBC Wales Local websites. We're also giving away packs of bee friendly flower seeds in June (details to follow), and bees will feature at the Springwatch Wild Days Out. In the meantime, find out which species of flowers are bee friendly from the RHS website and get planting. Bee keeping isn't just a rural operation - bees can thrive in villages, towns, and cities, as long as the conditions are right. Bee Facts: There are 250 species of bee in the UK consisting of bumblebees, honeybees and solitary bees.
Pollination delivers â�¬14.2bn to the European economy, most of this is through bumblebees and honeybees. Bumblebees have smelly feet. They produce oily secretions to inform other bees which flowers have already been visited Source: The Bumblebee
Conservation Trust That's it for now. If you've got a story concerning bees in Wales then do get in touch. I can mention it here in the blog and pass on any useful information to colleagues involved in the campaign. Gull Having trouble identifying bees? Try the BWARS image gallery.

Well, I had an amazing few weeks following Simon King and the Springwatch O.B crew around various destinations in Wales. It will take a while to try and digest everything I've seen and done during that time. It was great to visit so many amazing places that I'd previously only seen on TV and ...

Manx shearwaters are truly remarkable creatures, travelling millions of miles in their lifetime and living for up to 50 years, travelling from as far afield as South America to land on Bardsey Island to lay just one egg, in an underground burrow.